Municipalities rated on broadband internet connection

Eleven small municipalities were awarded four out of five stars in the fixed broadband connection rating. Of large cities, only Lahti and Oulu achieved 3.5 stars.

Larger cities rated better when comparing high-speed mobile networks. In this category, 13 municipalities were awarded four stars, said Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom in a press release.

This is the second star rating for municipalities based on the availability and use of high-speed broadband connections published by Traficom.

This year, municipalities were also awarded stars based on mobile network coverage areas. The rating for fixed network has also been developed further since last year. The star rating is based on information collected from telecommunications operators. The information refers to the end of 2018.

Eleven municipalities were awarded four stars for the availability and use of fixed high-speed broadband connections. Five of these municipalities are in Åland and the remaining six are small municipalities located in mainland Finland. Of large cities, Lahti and Oulu performed the best achieving 3.5 stars. Of all 311 municipalities, 152 municipalities, which is almost half, achieved at least two stars.

"For five stars, all households in the municipality should have access and use a 100 Mbps broadband connection. “In many cases the speed of used connections is lower only because consumers have not chosen the fastest available subscription type. Therefore, we have weighted availability in the rating. When looking at usage, we also take slower connections into account to a certain extent,” explained Joonas Orkola, Development Manager.

Thirteen municipalities were awarded four stars based on coverage areas of mobile connections. Besides Espoo, Helsinki, Turku and Vantaa, these municipalities included smaller municipalities, but not rural municipalities. A total of 252 municipalities achieved at least two stars in the mobile connection rating.

For five stars, a 100 Mbps broadband connection should be available on all connecting roads and any larger road sections in ideal conditions, and all households should be within a coverage area of a 300 Mbps mobile network by at least one operator. Limitations caused by network congestion are not taken into account in the rating. “Road coverage was weighted more than household coverage because of the mobile usage of the connections. The rating also takes coverage areas of slower connections into account to a certain extent”, specified Orkola.